Pathogens, comprising bacteria, protozoa and viruses that are infectious agents that cause diseases in humans, are a significant health hazard. The systemic over-use of antibiotics in the treatment of human disease, as well as in our food supply, has created a situation where many previously treatable strains of bacteria are now resistant to nearly all antibiotics. Additionally, there are limited sterilization treatments for viruses and environmental protozoa that do not themselves have significantly negative health impact on people. Various commonly handled objects provide vectors, routes for a pathogen to move from one person to another, for the growth and transmission of these pathogens. This happens as one person who is harboring or shedding a pathogen touches an object, and then another person later touches it, or when the same person touches it at a later time and the pathogen has increased on the object in the intervening time. Seemingly personal items such as credit cards, computer keyboards, computer mice, remote controls, stationary and mobile phones, vehicular steering wheels are actually handled by other individuals, only infrequently. Obviously shared items such as point-of-sale registers, kiosks, intelligent advertisement or other multi-user high touch systems, physical money, door handles and knobs, shopping cart surfaces, are by their function touched by many people frequently. These objects all have the potential to harbor and support the growth of pathogens for a period of time once exposed to the environment and/or touched by humans. It has been well recognized that the broad spectrum ultraviolet (UV) light, commonly found in sunlight, is effective in sterilization, preventing a pathogen from infecting a host, because UV light penetrates the pathogens' smaller cells, or virus virions, and damages the DNA of the pathogen, effectively killing it directly or preventing it from reproducing.